Who Owns Lakes And Rivers In Florida? Supreme Court Hears Battle Between Phosphate Companies And State

May 7, 1985|By Maya Bell, Sentinel Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in four cases that could determine whether thousands of miles of lakes and rivers belong to the state or private owners.

Attorneys for the Coastal Petroleum Company and the state Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund urged justices to overturn lower court rulings giving ownership of river beds and adjacent lands to several phosphate companies.

Attorneys for the phosphate interests -- American Cynamid Co., Mobil Oil Corp. and Agrico Chemical Co. -- said, however, the land was conveyed to them decades ago and is rightfully theirs.

At issue is the Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act passed by Congress in 1850 and the Marketable Record Title Act passed by the state Legislature in 1963. At stake is 5,000 miles of Florida lakes, 3,000 miles of Florida rivers and billions of dollars.

The Swamp Lands Act, passed when Florida's swamp and low-lying lands were considered useless, was designed to encourage the draining of marshy lands for farming. Under the act, the federal government conveyed swamp and overflow lands to the state and the state conveyed the lands -- 22 million acres of Florida's entire 35 million-acre mass -- to private ownership.

However, the deeds issued by the board of trustees, which is made up of the governor and Cabinet, did not say the rivers flowing through the areas were to remain public.

The Marketable Record Title Act was designed to simplify property transactions by abolishing ancient claims and defects in titles that are more than 30 years old. But according to the state Department of Natural Resources the act has evolved into an ''unintentional instrument for the legalized divestiture of publicly owned lands'' and has caused the state to lose 14 cases involving 50,000 acres, most of which was the subject of the appeals Monday.

Representing the board of trustees, Jacksonville attorney Robert Beckham argued that although the swamp and overflow deeds were silent on whether the state retained ownership of the rivers because the waterways were navigable and Florida automatically acquired all navigable waters when it became a state in 1845. He also said the board of trustees was not authorized to convey sovereign land.

In an odd union, the state was joined in its arguments by the Coastal Petroleum Co., which holds a mineral lease from the state for phosphate and other minerals in the Peace and Alafia rivers. Coastal is seeking more than $2 billion from Mobil for phosphate losses while the state is claiming $45 million in damages.

Coastal attorney Robert Angerer argued the phosphate companies were barred from claiming the riverbeds because they can't prove they bought and improved the properties. He, too, said the board of trustees was not authorized to give away sovereign land.

The phosphate companies, however, said the land never went into the public trust because an 1855 federal land survey did not designate the waterways as navigable.

''These cases involve pure and simple . . . an effort by Coastal Petroleum, joined by the state, to recover damages based on the mining of phosphate rock from land the trustees deeded to the predecessors of these landowners hundreds of years ago,'' said phosphate attorney Julian Clarkson.

Phosphate attorneys also argued that even if their deeds were invalid the Marketable Record Title Act gave them clear title.

The ruling in the phosphate dispute could affect the St. Johns, Steinhatchee, Econlockhatchee, Yellow, Withlacoochee, Fenholloway and Pithlachascotee rivers.

The Legislature is considering correcting the problems of public land reverting to private ownership through the Marketable Record Title Act. A bill (SB 673) that would retroactively exempt the state from the act is to be considered today by the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

A spokesman with the Department of Natural Resources said a change in the law would not affect the cases heard Monday.